The TLC singer calls the 'Scream' hitmaker her first ''real love'' but insists their split was not the inspiration for his 2004 album 'Confessions' in which the central character in the music had cheated on a past girlfriend and even having a child with another woman.

Chilli says the record - which included hits such as 'Let It Burn' and 'Confessions' - was actually based on the personal life of Jermaine Dupri, who produced it.

She explained to US Weekly magazine: ''We were together when he recorded that album. All of those songs on Confessions, that was about Jermaine Dupri's situation. Usher was just singing it. But people kind of bought into it, it was just the timing of our breakup when the album came out. So people assumed that album was about us, but it was not.''

Chilli - who was part of nineties R&B girl group TLC with Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins and the late Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes - insists her relationship with Usher ended amicably and she will always love him.

She continued: ''Usher and I weren't oil and water. We broke up because I guess it was that time or whatever ... But I'll always love him, forever, because he was my first adult love, a real love. but we're cool, we're really cool. There's no hard feelings, nothing like that. It's all good.''

Usher,35, went onto marry his stylist Tameka Foster in 2007, before filing for divorce in 2009. The pair had been involved in a bitter custody battle over their two sons, five-year old Usher V and Naviyd, four.